{
  "version": "3.33",
  "compiled": "2026-10-09",
  "site": "https://stateofwatch.com",
  "claim": {
    "id": "schmidt-capture-frequency",
    "section": 5,
    "title": "Norfolk's more favorable capture figure comes from its expert's report, now public with redactions",
    "date": null,
    "sort": null,
    "status": "verified",
    "checked": null,
    "note": "Updated Sept 28, 2026: the Estevez report was refiled publicly in redacted form (Doc. 180-1), and the appellate brief is now quoted in full. Earlier versions said the figure rested on a sealed declaration and shortened the brief's wording.",
    "category": "court",
    "case": "schmidt",
    "body": "The opinion's \"2-3 times per day\" figure is footnoted to ECF No. 113 at 9, the City of Norfolk's own district-court summary-judgment brief, and describes the plaintiffs' own vehicles. The City's appellate brief adds a figure for all vehicles: \"even the 5% of vehicles that were most photographed were on average photographed no more than once a day,\" citing the report of its expert, Valentin Estevez. That report was first filed under seal, then refiled publicly with redactions on Nov 21, 2025 (Doc. 180-1), where Estevez puts it as the top 5 percent being \"captured once or less on 65% of days.\" The passage saying whose plates that analysis covered is still redacted. Plaintiffs-Appellants' Reply Brief (Doc. 59) never mentions or disputes the figure, most plausibly because their theory rests on the system's capability, not observed capture frequency.",
    "quotes": [],
    "sources": [
      {
        "label": "Schmidt, Doc. 191, citing ECF No. 113 at 9",
        "primary": true,
        "doc": "schmidt-district-opinion"
      },
      {
        "label": "Response Brief of Defendants-Appellees, 4th Cir. No. 26-1227 (June 11, 2026)",
        "primary": true,
        "url": "https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca4.181755/gov.uscourts.ca4.181755.38.0.pdf",
        "doc": "schmidt-response-brief"
      },
      {
        "label": "Schmidt, Doc. 180-1 (E.D. Va.), redacted Estevez declaration and report",
        "primary": true,
        "docket": "2:24cv621",
        "doc": "schmidt-estevez-redacted"
      },
      {
        "label": "Plaintiffs-Appellants' Reply Brief, Doc. 59",
        "primary": true
      }
    ],
    "places": [
      "norfolk-va"
    ],
    "url": "https://stateofwatch.com/claims/schmidt-capture-frequency"
  }
}